Since the second quarter price and sales statistics were released on Friday, I’ve been mulling their meaning.

The consensus analysis was that the numbers reflected stability in the market, and I echoed that sentiment in my post’s headline last week. Actually, I had been saying when asked, frequently, that the market appeared to me to be stable.

But I wonder whether “thank goodness” wouldn’t be more to the point and whether individuals quoted on the state of the Manhattan housing market weren’t just expressing relief that we avoided disaster in April, May and June. How well founded is that relief?

As everyone knows, statistics are easily manipulated — they come from self-interest parties, real estate brokerages. Moreover, they never agree with each other. The value on any one of them perhaps lies in their findings relative to each report’s previous numbers.